The offer comes less than 3 weeks after rival bar group Stonegate made an offer of 200p per share.
Companies: Revel Collective PLC
High street bar group Revolution Bars (LON: RBG) faces being in the middle of a tug-of-war battle for a takeover after it turned down an offer from Deltic Group, it was announced today.
Deltic, who owns nightclub chains Pryzm and Oceana, made the offer just weeks after rival Stonegate Pub Company made an offer of 200p per share. Slug and Lettuce and Walkabout are both Stonegate establishments.
Deltic said the Stonegate offer was “opportunistic” after a profit warning caused Revolution’s shares to drop 40% on May 19.
Revolution has turned down the offer from Deltic, and continue their negotiations with Stonegate, their announcement said. Revolution went on to say...
"Based on these preliminary interactions [with Deltic], the Board had concerns over both the value and deliverability of the combination and did not see any merit in progressing their proposal as the Board believes that a combination of Revolution and Deltic is not in the best interest of shareholders at this time."
finnCap announced in their 1 August morning note the details of the Stonegate offer which was made the day before. Stonegate has until August 28 to make a formal bid for the company, while Deltic will have until September 12 to make its offer or withdraw its interest.
Revolution admits it has struggled in the face of a downturn in the nighttime economy as well as suffering higher than anticipated costs.
The Stonegate offer saw RBG shares regain over 40% at the end of July, and shares today are trading up slightly over 3% off the back of the rival bid.
Clearly, a turbulent time for RBG, after Group CFO Chris Chambers stood down in May, and after 2 bids in less than 3 weeks, it will be interesting to see if this bidding war escalates. Readers will remember the recent Lavendon acquisition where multiple counter bids were received and the final price was significantly above opening salvos.
